Yesterday, we reported that Marty O’Donnell, who has for years worked with Bungie to compose Halo‘s epic soundtracks, had his contract with the developer allegedly “terminated without cause”. O’Donnell, who is well-loved among fans for a series of memorable tunes, including the iconic theme tune, didn’t have much else to say, but the move sparked anger from gamers and raised eyebrows across the industry. Is everything ok over at Bungie?
In an interview with Eurogamer, Bungie’s chief operating officer Pete Parsons remained tight-lipped on the reasons behind the occurrence, but denied that there is anything wrong - and remained adamant that O’Donnell’s departure won’t have a negative impact on development of their upcoming open-world MMO-FPS Destiny, which is expected to release late this year on PS3, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
“”I think the Bungie fanbase is going to look forward to hearing Marty’s music, Mike Salvatori’s music, C. Paul’s music and Paul McCartney’s music in the game. That’s going to be exciting for people. It’s going to be a great, fantastic experience.”
He continues: “I believe people will be transported not just by the activities and the stories within the Destiny universe but by the sights and the wonderful sounds and music,” he said. “We have a fantastic team. We’re pretty close to shipping. There’s a lot of polish left to do, lots of tweaking and tuning, but a lot is already complete.”
Whatever the real reason behind O’Donnell’s departure - Bungie says that they parted ways as “friends”, at odds with the tone of O’Donnell’s original announcement - there’s no doubting that Destiny is highly anticipated. The developer’s first work since passing the Halo torch over to Microsoft’s in-house studio 343 Industries, Destiny sees the developer go multi-platform for the first time since Halo: Combat Evolved first debuted as an exclusive on the original Xbox way back in 2001. The game sees Bungie remaining true to its sci-fi roots, but also sees them striking out into new territory with new publisher Activision.
While the Halo and Marathon series’ were always known for including multiplayer components - Halo 2 multiplayer cemented Xbox Live as one of the lynchpins of Microsoft’s console strategy - Destiny takes that foundation and builds on it, with an online-only open-world. Dubbed an “shared-world shooter,” rather than all players coexisting on the same server at once, the game will randomly matchmake players on the fly as they enter into new areas.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on Destiny over the coming months - as well as keeping our ear to the ground for any more developments surrounding Marty O’Donnell parting ways with the developer.
Dale Morgan
@spamdangled
Latest posts by Dale Morgan (see all)
- Well orchestrated: An interview with Mark Robins - 16 June 2024
- Destiny will now be 1080p on Xbox One - 11 June 2024
- Bethesda reveals first trailer for DOOM 4 - 10 June 2024
